Elizabeth Barrett Browning's spiritual progress
Subtitle: face to face with God
By: Linda M. Lewis.
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Columbia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 256
Subjects: Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 1806-1861 -- Religion.; Christianity and literature -- England -- History -- 19th century.; Christian poetry, English -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Women -- Religious life -- England.; God in literature.
Description: Elizabeth Barrett Browning believed that "Christ's religion is essentially poetry - poetry glorified." In Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Spiritual Progress, Linda M. Lewis studies Browning's religion as poetry, her poetry as religion.

The book interprets Browning's literary life as an arduous spiritual quest - the successive stages being a rejection of Promethean pride for Christ-like humility, affirmation of the Gospels of Suffering and of Work, internalization of the doctrine of Apocalypse, and ascent to Divine Love and Truth.

Concluding with an examination of religion as a central focus of Victorian women poets, Lewis clarifies the ways in which Browning differs from Christina Rossetti, Felicia Hemans, Dora Greenwell, Jean Ingelow, and Mary Howitt. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Spiritual Progress maintains that Browning's peculiar face-to-face struggle with the patristic and poetic tradition - as well as with God - sets her work apart.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-247) and index.